Herbert Soule, longtime police chief of Sugar Creek, dies

Sugar Creek Police Chief Herbert Soule died Friday of complications from an illness.

Soule, whose age was not released by the police dispatcher, died at 3:40 p.m. at North Kansas City Hospital after a short battle with an illness that the police department did not disclose.

Soule was with the Sugar Creek department for 48 years, the dispatcher said. He became chief in 2001.

“Herb was just a kind soul. He was a rough and tough-looking guy, but he had a heart of gold,” Kris Turnbow, the retired police chief for Raymore and, before that, Raytown, said Saturday.

Turnbow called Soule “Mr. Sugar Creek” and credited him with being instrumental in the 1980s with helping start the Public Safety Institute on the Blue River campus of Metropolitan Community College in Independence.

Soule’s ambition, Turnbow said, had always been to serve the town where he lived.

“He had deep, deep roots in the community,” Turnbow said. “You just weren’t going to get him away.”

In September, Soule received his town’s Citizen of the Year honor, which was presented at the Community Foundation’s 19th Toast to Our Towns Gala.

In a release about that award, Soule was recognized for his “passion for representing the City of Sugar Creek.”

This story was originally published November 15, 2014 at 8:49 AM with the headline "Herbert Soule, longtime police chief of Sugar Creek, dies."